Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Saturday accused President Donald Trump of dividing America and creating a "crisis of belonging" for people of color, immigrants, gay people and others.

While Trump's proposed border wall is a fantasy, the South Bend, Ind. mayor said, the administration is erecting real walls with what he called the most divisive form of "identity politics" – white identity politics.

That can leave black women, immigrants, the disabled, displaced auto workers and others feeling like they're living in a different country, Buttigieg told a gala of gay rights activists.

Buttigieg, who is openly gay, said there is also some schismatic thinking in the Democratic Party, such as when "we're told we need to choose between supporting an auto worker and supporting a trans women of color, without stopping to think about the fact that sometimes the auto worker is a trans woman of color and she definitely needs all the support that she can get."

Buttigieg said at the Human Rights Campaign gala in Las Vegas that each person has a story that can be used to either separate – or connect – them to others.

"What every gay person has in common with every excluded person of any kind is knowing what it’s like to see a wall between you and the rest of the world and wonder what it’s like on the other side," he said. "I am here to build bridges and to tear down walls."